20 June, 2007

Where do your thoughts turn in days like these? How does a thinking person attempt to gather their thoughts in a world like ours? I keep trying to write something cohesive about the things that have grabbed my attention over the past week; trying to make sense of things or to find some way for us to move beyond this chaos. I am failing miserably.

Who are we as a species that some of us, any of us, can, with not a shred of remorse or hesitation, tether a child to a bed, naked, sell his food in the market, and leave him to starve? And what of those who knew and did nothing to stop it? The appalling condition of 24 boys miraculously, thankfully found in that orphanage in Baghdad are a stain on our entire species because this is how the world treats its children more often than not. But remember this was an Iraqi government-run orphanage; the same Iraq government backed by the U.S. PM Maliki promised an investigation, but the Iraqi Labor and Social Affairs Minister also had something to say about the horror story on Wednesday - he claimed the boys were perfectly healthy and the report was a fabrication. I would ask that the Minister tell it to these boys himself.

The U.N./UNHCR declared June 20thWorld Refugee Day. There is not much cause for celebration. According to an ABC News report, 1 in 10 Iraqis now live outside Iraq. With nearly equal numbers of Iraqis displaced internally and externally (1.9mil. and 2mil - UNHCR). Of those combined numbers, 55% are under the age of 12. The effects on the wider region and the younger generation remain to be seen. "People ask me if I am Muslim," a Turkish friend in Damascus told me in December, "that's normal. But now, when I say I am, they are quick to ask 'Shi'a, Sunni, Alaouite, Alavi....' They didn't used to do that." I don't believe we can fathom what ripples radiate from the things we are seeing today. Global Voices has a good wrap-up from the blogosphere, including some important video from the Australian SBS program Dateline. "As of June 20 – World Refugee Day – the United States had resettled only 272 Iraqi refugees since October 2005." This country can do more. Even the U.S. government's goal of 7,000 Iraqis resettled by the end of 2007 is unimpressive. Sweden resettled just over 9,000 Iraqis alone last year. As with so much else related to this war, Iraqis and other people I spoke to in the region are paying attention to this ongoing story and they will not forget it anytime soon.

And what about our refugees here in the U.S.: those scattered to the winds by Katrina, or the economic refugees from a broken world economy who some call "illegal"?

An eye for an eye has turned into a mosque for a mosque; both senseless, horrific, and unwinable tactics. Food prices rise, standards of living slip, and the future becomes uncertain whether you live in Damascus or Dallas. We here in the U.S. complain about the price of gas when we should be shouting for alternatives to our cars and our obsessions with a society that builds upon and feeds sprawl. I don't pretend to have all the answers, and I am well aware of how bad things are. I am sick of simply talking about how bad things are or how horrible Bush is. I am genuinely interested in sitting and talking - not yelling, not demanding, not hiding behind dogma - and actually figuring out a better way. No more wallowing. We have to get down to work for change. It is no longer a matter of choice.

Salaam.

(Thanks to Golaniya for her post on the Iraqi orphans - the first I'd heard about them.)

Work is ongoing in preparation for the 1st EVER U.S. Social Forum, which will be held in Atlanta, Georgia from June 27 through July 1st.

I've been at my laptop reworking the volunteer database the last few days making sure everybody is accounted for. We still need volunteers and will welcome anyone and their skills in addition to those with specific skills in health care (incl. alternative healing) & 1st Aid, child care, translation, and computers/technical support. You can sign up to VOLUNTEER online. Remember if you sign up for (4) four-hour volunteer shifts your registration fees for the Forum will be waived. My eyes are a bit sore from staring at my screen, but it's so exciting to see how far people will travel to help make the Forum happen: Pakistan, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Turkey, Guatemala, Haiti, Mali, Benin, Kenya, Cameroon, Nepal...And these are just the people who signed up to volunteer!

The schedule of workshops is now available at the U.S. Social Forum website so you can find out when and where your workshops will be held. If you can't find a workshop you saw on the site earlier it has probably been withdrawn for any number of reasons. I was sad to find out the New Islamic Directions would be unable to attend and thus their Islamic-centered workshops are no longer on the schedule. However, there are more than enough workshops on a wide spectrum of topics and I suspect everybody will walk away July 1st having learned something new and made a few new allies.

Also, any of you planning to attend AND document the event in any way (blogs, photos, audio, amateur or pro, etc.) should register with the with the Ida B. Wells Media Justice Center, part of the Forum itself. I've registered myself and this blog as part of the media campaign. The media component of the Forum will include a variety of daily trainings, active partnerships, a collaborative reporting and archiving strategy, and much more:

"The Ida B. Wells Media Justice Center (MJC) will create a revolutionary model of media coverage, documentation, first-person storytelling, and community based news making on location at the United States Social Forum. The MJC will use a journalistic method that upends the traditional relationships dominating most media production: reporter/subject, people with class privilege/people struggling with poverty, white/people of color, documented/undocumented, able-bodied/disabled, formally educated/educated in the school of hard knocks, among others. This collaborative media training, resource, support and press relations center will be a cornerstone of this summer’s first-ever U.S. Social Forum (USSF) in Atlanta."